I got the new Torres as a present, and played it several times as a 2- or 3-player game. Mostly with the "master" variant where each player starts with all the cards, but without a "master" bonus card. Anyways, each time the scores were very, very close - a couple of points, maybe 10 maximum, out of huge scores... I was just wondering if others have found this to be the case. Thanks! By the way, it's an awesome game, get it if you're looking for a brain-burner and a beautiful one at that!

Hi Isabel, it's not always the case. Blowouts are possible in Torres. However, if one player opens a big lead early (say through clever placement of the King or shrewd castle building and use of action cards) then the others can work together to catch up. This is usually done by blocking the leading player out of positions, especially a position for the King's bonus.

In the games I have played scores were not all that close. Maybe 10 points in a really close game, going as high as 50 in some cases. Score increases non-linearly, so the effect of being in a bigger castle is quite large. The King's bonus seems to be trivial compared to castle points.

My impression is that it is hard to build a very large castle without other players also moving in and earning a comparable number of points. Of course, in each such castle, one will have the advantage but it seemed to overall cancel out. Could be because our group is very committed to pairing up against the leader (?) and blocking him/her...

When I say huge scores, I mean going around the track once and up to 1/2 turn more. Thanks for the comments!

Yes, Torres is a superb game. My games usualy ends over 250 or more points, but I ALWAYS play with the "master" version. This version improves very much the replayability and adds so much chrome and strategies/tatics to the game. The "master cards" are very interesting and brings new possibilities, tatics, decisions and different ways to win the game.

My games are like that also!!! They are always really close... and it's normal. Especially if your games are at 2-3 players. When you have a big castle it's easy for the others to follow you in. Usually in each castle there will be one player a bit higher than the other there and since everybody will enlarge the castle where they lead, the difference between player will often be small. You should try playing at 4 player where it will be harder to be everywhere, and easier to block some of the player out of some castle.